Talia Beale On Queer Home Life And Broadening Your Creative Outlet

Talia Beale is one of many artists collaborating with Ugly Duck Bermondsey for their @Disturbance program this year with to trudge in zundon, an art project focusing on the queer lives lived on council estates, particularly in London. The importance of sharing underrepresented stories is a cornerstone of Beale’s practice and we are so excited to see her work platformed alongside a stacked roster at @Disturbance this November. 

Below, Polyester’s deputy editor Gina Tonic has a quick chat with Beale about her trailblazing practice and being a multi format creative.

How did you get involved with Ugly Duck and @Disturbance?

Puer Deorum hit me up! I spontaneously filmed a crazy one take music video on a 360 cam in the underground tunnels of this exhibition space in central one night. Towards the end of the video I made my way into the space which Brenna Horroz and Ludovica designed with sunset wall paper all throughout and  Puer Deorum had a massive installation where a tree root was sprouting out of the ceiling. So that's how we know of each other! 

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What draws you to featuring on group programmes alongside other artists?

Group programmes are really like underground catalogues for artists. It unlocks so many new people at once and I love that; you can often find future collaborators through gathering’s like Ugly Duck and @Disturbance and you’re also able to see how your art sits politically and artistically depending on how the curator chooses the other artists alongside you. It’s great to hand over your art from time to time to understand how it can be perceived.

to trudge in zundon turns its eye to queer youth in flat blocks, why do you think it’s so important to represent the home lives of queer people?

Well we don’t see enough of it. At the moment it really is important to highlight a voice where there is no voice. I’ve never seen a narrative about queer people who live on estates but that isn’t to say that those people aren’t there. Even with to trudge in zundon I feel like I barely scrapped the surface with the realities of queer home life – mainly because I was trying to address so many things at once. But I think with this film I first just wanted to say ‘we are here’. And then secondly I wanted to say ‘we are here...but with a new perspective.’

As an artist with numerous outlets - music, film, etc - what advice would you give to someone feeling forced into choosing just one creative outlet?

Both paths are one of preference. If you want to only do one thing then you’ll end up mastering it. I personally have numerous outlets because I feel like categories for things can sometimes be used as a way of gatekeeping. Everything is art to me and when you combine things you end up making new hybrids and the chaotic side of me revels in that unpredictability + experimentation. We’re not one thing so my art isn’t either. My main advice would be you can do anything you put your mind to. If you want to explore a new outlet you simply need to have fun with it first. Play with it. If it's for you then introduce it to another medium, and then another. Eventually you’ll find your creative palette broadening to places you wouldn’t have even imagined.

“I personally have numerous outlets because I feel like categories for things can sometimes be used as a way of gatekeeping.”

Finding success as a creative is notoriously hard, what advice would you give a new artist trying to find success?

See your art as a document of your present state/situation. In that case nothing you create is wrong because it is simply the best you can do at this current moment. This mentality helped me a lot when I was younger because everything I made felt right and I detached from falling into a ball of comparison and striving for perfection all the time. Once you have a taste of success it can often freeze creativity because then you feel like you need to top that or make the same thing again in order to thrive. As long as your art is a document, then it is ever changing.

Follow Talia on Instagram, find out more about @Disturbance here.